Casio SK-1

Consumer-grade home keyboard released in 1985 by Casio. Notable features include cheap synth tones, cheap rhythms, and ultra lo-fi sampling abilities. Below is all kinds of information about this lovely trashy toy that I've grown to love since I received it as a Christmas present as a child.

Fun things to do with your SK-1:
As most people have done as kids, sample your fart, burp, the tv, or noise you want to hear humorously pitched up or down. Hours of fun, and especially good for road trips.

For musicians, especially electronic musicians, its a great way to get lo-fi stuff into your recordings. You won't get any minute-long samples, as the maximum sample length is very short, however it is a great source for percussion and weird effects.

If you sample your fingers flicking the air (make sure its loud enough), the SK-1 will truncate the sample down to just the flick sound. The sample is so short that looping it will produce a woody sounding synth tone that is really pretty nifty.

There are 13 amplitudeenvelopes to apply to your sampled sound. Most have names like "damped tone," "organ with attack," or something similarly non-specific. You can get close to echo & reverb, but most will slightly vary aspects of a standard ADSR.

Harmonic synthesis voice:
The last button under "pipe organ" will bring up the harmonic synthesis voice onto the keys. Pushing the "synthesizing" button will switch the SK-1 into harmonic synthesis mode. Your current sound (starts with fundamental) will sustain until the process is complete (synthesizing button is pushed again). You cannot trigger any notes within this mode. Slightly varied sine waves are mapped to 9 keys (16-foot, 8-foot, 5 1/2-foot, 4-foot, 2 2/3-foot, 2-foot, 1 3/5-foot, 1 1/3-foot, 1-foot). Each push of a key within the range will increase the particular sine within the voice. The range of sounds is fairly limited, most ending up sounding like a cheap bell or organ.

Modification:
The range of sounds that are possible to produce with the SK-1 is fairly limited, but can be expanded by opening up the case and playing with its pieces. It is a particularly popular keyboard to do this with, as it can be battery-operated and has easily accessible circuits. Popular modifications include a MIDI retrofit and circuit bending.